Frank J. Rauscher Jr., a former director of the National Cancer Institute who discovered one of the most-studied animal cancer viruses, has died. Rauscher was 61 when he died on Thursday of a heart attack. A scientist for the National Cancer Institute from 1959 to 1976, he was appointed director in 1972 by President Richard M. Nixon to spearhead the Administration's "war on cancer" program.

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute report that four fatty substances found in common ocean algae protected cells of the human immune system against attack by the AIDS virus. The extracts, called sulfolipids, come from the membranes of chlorophyll-containing cells and are found in many plants, algae and micro-organisms.

Cancer rates have increased slightly for black men, still the Americans most likely to get and die of cancer, according to a National Cancer Institute study. The study found that black men had a general cancer rate of 560 cases per 100,000 people and a cancer death rate of 319 per 100,000. Statistics released last year showed a cancer rate of 557 per 100,000 and a cancer death rate of 316 per 100,000 for black males.

Andrew von Eschenbach, named last week as interim Food and Drug Administration commissioner to replace Lester Crawford, will take a leave of absence from his job as director of the National Cancer Institute, Sen. Barbara Mikulski said. Von Eschenbach also will "refrain from selected FDA activities that may be seen as a conflict of interest," Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement.

News of a promising new cancer treatment at the National Cancer Institute prompted a flood of calls to the federal center today from people desperate for a cure from the disease. The callers want information about a new treatment, called adoptive immunotherapy, that turns ordinary white blood cells into "killer cells" that attack malignant tumors. The treatment was announced Wednesday in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Story, Page 12)

Former U.S. Rep. Bill Chappell Jr. (D-Fla.), defeated last year after 20 years in Congress, said Friday that he is being treated for bone cancer. Chappell, 67, was admitted to the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., on Feb. 23 by the National Cancer Institute and is in stable condition, a spokeswoman said.

Women considering a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer often face a difficult decision: whether to remove their healthy breast as well. A new study should make it easier for some of these women to make up their minds. It concludes that patients with a dangerous mutation in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene were able to cut their risk of dying from breast cancer nearly in half by opting to remove both breasts. The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes contain instructions for producing tumor suppressor proteins, which repair damaged DNA and keep cells from turning cancerous.

You would think that people who were diagnosed with melanoma -- the most deadly form of skin cancer -- would be meticulously careful about using sunscreen, avoiding tanning salons and generally protecting their skin. You would be wrong, researchers said Monday. Melanoma tumors develop in the skin cells that make melanin, the brown pigment that protects skin from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation. It is the least common type of skin cancer, but it can be the most dangerous.